President Donald Trump has instructed the federal government to exert control over California’s water systems and we need your help in demanding that Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta stand up to him!
In his first week as President, Donald Trump issued two executive orders that topple Californians’ right to manage our own natural resources and sentence the San Francisco Bay-Delta Ecosystem to collapse. Within both orders, Trump perpetuates a number of lies, including that the Los Angeles fires were due to “inadequate water supplies” in Southern California and meager water imports from Northern California. This is not true - the reservoirs were full enough to battle the flames. Gusts as high as 90mph and an urban water system ill-equipped to battle a fire that size were the true culprits of the blaze’s speed and intensity.
Nevertheless, he continues the second Executive Order by making a series of illegal and erroneous demands of the federal government that will interfere with State agencies’ duty to protect Californians’ water supply and ecosystems. Specifically:
- He reinstates a series of outdated Biological Opinions from his first administration that open the doors for unfettered pumping of Bay-Delta flows to the detriment of our beleaguered ecosystems (Section 2b).
- He eviscerates the Endangered Species Act by illegally employing the “God Squad” provision - mandating that his administration wholly ignore required protections for critically endangered Delta fish species to benefit the big agriculturists that have bought his attention (Section 2d).
- Potentially most alarming, he instructs the federal government to “take all available measures to ensure that State agencies … do not interfere with the [federal government’s] operation of the project to maximize water delivery to high-need communities” (Section 2c). In doing so, President Trump superimposes his authority over state-level decisions, supplanting science-backed, community-informed decision making with his far-right, oligarchal vision.
We’ve already seen the disastrous impact of some of these actions. During a routine shutoff of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Jones Pumping Station, President Trump alleged that he had sent the military in to restore water flows. The California Department of Water Resources later confirmed this to be false, but even the idea of using the U.S. military to force California civil servants’ compliance with Trump’s ideology is a dangerous precedent to set. A few days later, Trump released over 1.6 billion gallons of dam water, unnecessarily wasting water that cities and farms depend on during the drier spring and summer. These grievous attacks demand a resolute and strong response from our state’s governing officials.
Donald Trump is dangerous. His water management ideology could prove deadly for Californians. He misplaces what and who is to blame for the fires, leaving Californians unprepared for future fire seasons. He conditions disaster aid on the state meeting his political demands. He threatens military action against our state’s public servants and water experts. He jeopardizes the water supply of the remaining Delta fish populations by attempting to divert crucial river flows to corporate agriculturalists. His goal is to drain California’s people and ecosystems of water by flooding his moneyed cronies with it. And he could very likely succeed.
We need our leadership to use every legal, legislative, and regulatory tool at their disposal to defend our water system against his threats.
We’re calling on Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta to stand up to these attacks from the Trump Administration. The people of California need to know that our elected officials have our back in the fight for clean, affordable water and safe, healthy ecosystems. Newsom should be signing executive orders, organizing legislation, and galvanizing regulators to protect the Delta ecosystem from Trump’s assaults. Bonta should be filing lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders, regulatory actions, and the validity of his administration’s biological opinions. This needs to be a top priority.
Please send a letter to Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta demanding action today.
If you have questions, please contact Layne Fajeau, Associate Organizer, at Layne.Fajeau@sierraclub.org
Thank you for supporting water sustainability in California!
